I make a scoop with my hand and pull out sticky, slippery white beans from a ridged, yellow pod. It’s a cloudy Friday afternoon in Kapaʻa in East Kauaʻi. I’m in a small clearing in a cacao orchard on Lydgate Farms. Every month, Will Lydgate, the owner and namesake of Lydgate Farms, hosts cacao-harvesting volunteer […]
Lilia Tollefsen helps me shimmy a small milo tree from its pot, the soft dirt crumbling between my fingers. Before I place the fragile plant, the one I had selected from a few others, into the hole already dug for me, she says to wait. I get the feeling something important is about to happen.
The iconic American battleship USS Missouri, based at Pearl Harbor, Oahu and affectionately known as the “Mighty Mo,” has her own postage stamp now. On June 11, 2019, the U.S. Postal Service celebrated the USS Missouri (BB-63) with the release of this new Forever stamp, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the ship’s commissioning on
Congratulations to our winners in HAWAII Magazine’s first video contest! As a contest that was open to both amateurs and professionals, we got unique entries from all over the world, some very personal, others polished and professional. What we asked for: A 60-second video of Hawaii that inspires others to travel to the Islands and
“There’s so much you can do with sugarcane,” says Kevin Nguyen, owner and operator of Ko Kane Sugarcane Juice Bar. Located across the street from Ala Moana Center, this watering hole-in-the-wall mixes local Hawaii fruits and produce with real sugarcane stock—sugarcane was once Hawaii’s largest and most influential crop—to craft colorful and creative drinks that
A couple of years ago, a bright-purple yam from the Philippines was all the Instagram rage. Ube (pronounced oo-bae) is traditionally used to create a gorgeous pudding dessert (called ube halaya). Today, though, it has become the base flavor for artisanal desserts—from doughtnuts to cheesecakes to ice cream. It has a creamy, subtly sweet flavor—one chef
With summer in full swing, obon festival season has officially started in the Hawaiian Islands. A tradition brought over to Hawaii by Japanese immigrants, obon festivals (casually referred to as bon dances) occur on every island and bring local communities together to welcome the spirits of ancestors as well as celebrate the lives they have
For centuries, humans have sensed that water holds vast healing powers—from the thalassotherapy, or sea therapy, in ancient Greece, to the way the thermal baths of Big Sur have been respected and revered for decades, to the world-renowned medicinal hot springs of Budapest. The mysterious way Earth’s water sources can act as a miraculous panacea
Congratulations Honolulu, you’ve done it again. For the second year in a row, Oahu’s metropolitan area and Hawaii’s capital city has ranked at the number one spot on Resonance Consultancy’s America’s Best Small City list. The category of “small city” is defined by a city having a population that is greater than 200,000 but less than 1 million.
My son was only a couple of months old when he embarked on his first hike—snug in an Ergo and napping the entire 2-mile trek to the top of the Makapuu Lighthouse Trail along the southeastern coastline of Oahu. It’s an easy hike I’ve done my entire life growing up here, and one I did
My feet may be dangling 20 feet above the turquoise water below, but my eyes are focused straight ahead at Leahi (Diamond Head) looming in the distance. It’s an incredibly clear afternoon in Hawaii Kai on the southern coastline of Oahu, and from one of H2O Sports Hawaii’s jet packs, it’s the first time I’m
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Oahu’s Kailua Beach Park, which looks like it has popped straight out of a Photoshopped-to-perfection postcard, has been selected by Dr. Beach as the best beach in the U.S. in 2019. Every year Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman, more commonly known as Dr. Beach, picks out the top 10 beaches in
